Korpiklaani is set to release new album "Noita" on May 5th in North America via Nuclear Blast. Today the band premieres the lyric video for "Lempo," which can be seen below. Commented Fiddler Tuomas Rounakari:

"Lempo is a fiery God of fertility and the song is about the spells designated to Lempo in order to guarantee a success in one's personal love life. The Finnish mythology is very unique in its approach to sexuality. We do not have spells to improve procreation like most of the cultures do. But the spells to gain more luck in love life or to increase ones stamina are numerous for both men and women.

"Lempo is also closely related to fire and one could see the hair of Lempo flashing in the red and yellow flames of fire. The song is a prime example of the new Korpiklaani sound with a lead guitar like violin solo and more prominent folk arrangements. It takes a step towards progressive rock balancing the folk and metal in a way Jonne has always dreamed it to be."

In addition to recently announced North American tour dates with Ensiferum, Korpiklaani has announced a run of North American headline shows with Trollfest providing direct support. These dates begin April 28th in Charlotte, NC and run through May 5th in San Diego, CA. The two bands will then join up with co-headliner Ensiferum on May 6th in Los Angeles, CA. More...

The recently reformed sludgecore beasts from Raging Speedhorn will be bringing their filthy riffs to the Ronnie James Dio main stage of the upcoming Bloodstock festival. The band’s Gordon Morison comments: “We’re over the moon to be playing Bloodstock 2015. It’ll be awesome to share the stage with some of our old friends like Orange Goblin and Napalm Death. See you down the front!”

Progressive metal Brits Xerath also bring the heavy to Friday’s main stage. The band enthuses, "We are utterly stoked to announce we will be returning to Catton Hall once again to perform at this year's Bloodstock festival. We are especially proud to confirm we will be gracing the mainstage for the first time since our debut at the festival in 2009 which promises to almost certainly be a career defining moment for the band. We sincerely cannot wait to see you all there! Warm up those necks Bloodstockers!"

French groove metal eccentrics Trepalium and Dutch death metal outfit Villainy are also set for Sophie stage slots on Sunday. The currently announced lineup is: More...

Finnish folk metal superstars Korpiklaani will release brand new album "Noita" on May 1st (Europe) and May 5th (U.S.) via Nuclear Blast.

You can pre-order your copy of "Noita" at this location. Now the band has published a teaser trailer, giving an insight on the recordings of this ninth studio encounter.

"Noita" was recorded at Petrax Studio with Aksu Hanttu handling production, recording, and mixing again. It will also be the first Korpiklaani album to feature new accordion player Sami Perttula, who has been playing a very active role in the folk arrangements along with Fiddler Tuomas Rounakari. More...

Can 21st-century metalheads ever be truly happy if they’re not bitching about something on the web?

The pointless arguments over bands’ music, which mostly boil down to matters of taste, are exhausting enough. And there’s a simple solution to dissatisfaction with a particular tour package: stay home and masturbate.

But complaining about festival lineups? Really?

I have some news for you, sport: the only Perfect Metal Festival Lineup, which exists only in an individual’s imagination, attracts an audience of one. Your Perfect Lineup is different from mine.

There needs to be a common denominator, a compromise. I don’t know about you, but when I’m not basking in my serene, elite metal knowledge via trve and righteous, smarmy and self-congratulatory screeds on Facebook, I actually enjoy watching a live show in the company of others. And in reaching the compromise to make that social event possible, everyone’s Perfect Lineup inevitably becomes less than perfect. Such is the transition from fantasy to reality.

In the process, like small children finally realizing that vegetables aren’t going to kill them, we learn that the reality is almost always better than the fantasy (discounting the fact that the latter doesn’t exist). MTV’s Butt-Head once mused on this very issue: “If nothing sucked, and everything was, like, cool all the time… how would you KNOW it was cool?”

At a several-day festival with dozens of bands on multiple stages, we NEED at least a handful of acts we know we can ignore. Otherwise, think of the immense pressure to be constantly on our feet, rushing back and forth, watching every equally important band with rapt attention. Even if possible, it would be simply overwhelming. We’d pass out from exhaustion and forget to enjoy ourselves. Plus, the truly special acts wouldn’t seem as special.

Last summer at Tuska Open Air in Helsinki, rather than bitch about the injustice of Bring Me The Horizon directly preceding Anthrax, I was grateful for the chance to relax and have a beer before catching a show by one of the Big Four. More...

Finland's Ensiferum announced a North American headlining tour with country mates Korpiklaani and Norway's Trollfest for this May. The tour kicks off on May 6th 2015 at the infamous House of Blues in Los Angeles and the band will be promoting the new album "One Man Army," which will be issued on Tuesday, February 24th by Metal Blade Records. Korpiklaani's new album "Noita" will be issued on May 1st via Nuclear Blast Records.

In anticipation of the folk metal band's upcoming new record, today Korpiklaani reveals the cover artwork for "Noita," which was created by Jan Yrlund from Darkgrove Design (who has created all the Korpiklaani covers in recent years).

You can pre-order your copy of "Noita" - due out May 01 (EU), May 04 (UK) and May 05 (US) via Nuclear Blast - at this location.

"Noita" was recorded at Petrax Studio with Aksu Hanttu handling production, recording, and mixing again. It will also be the first Korpiklaani album to feature new accordion player Sami Perttula. More...

Finnish folk metal outfit Korpiklaani is pleased to announce the band has inked a new deal with Nuclear Blast for the release of upcoming album "Noita," which is set for a release in May of 2015. "Noita" follows the 2012 album "Manala" (reviewed here).

"Noita" was recorded at Petrax Studio with Aksu Hanttu handling production, recording, and mixing again. It will also be the first album to feature new accordion player Sami Perttula, who has been playing a very active role in the folk arrangements along with Fiddler Tuomas Rounakari.

Commented bassplayer Jarkko Aaltonen: “'Noita' in the traditional Finnish meaning is different than what people associate it with nowadays. 'Noita' is a person with wider knowledge and understanding of the nature and who also was believed to possess paranormal or unnatural abilities. These people were often also referred to as 'Tietäjä,' that exactly means someone with wider knowledge and understanding of pretty much everything. Native American medicine man is pretty much the same thing or actually all the different types of Shamans of the primitive peoples are the same thing. 'Noita' is someone that you turn to when you need help of some kind. Finnish 'Noita' had the ability to heal, just like their North American counterparts.

"They were very respected members of the society. Only later Christianity changed the word to mean something negative since those people were considered rivals by the church. Even in Finland this turned into a Witchhunt (=noitavaino) every now and then. Anyway, most people using Google Translate or similar will find the word 'Witch' and will probably get a bit wrong idea of the meaning, since most will probably connect it with the black sabbaths, devil marks, and such, when a way more correct translation would probably be medicine man or Shaman.”

New accordionist Sami Perttula comments: “Previously the Korpiklaani albums were played with a piano-accordion and now I play with a traditional button-accordion which was more widely used in Finland anyways. In the arrangements you can hear more tonal harmonies and folky accompaniments combined to the power-chords than before. It actually boosts up the uplifting feel of our music.” More...

Four more bands were announced today for the 2015 roster by UMC - promoters for the Original and World's Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal. On board at the last minute: Florida hardcore act Adaliah, Florida deathcore act Dark Sermon and Swiss groove act GurD and German thrashers Exumer.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off tomorrow January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica and returns on Monday, January 26, 2015. The festival boards a new vessel, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

Three more bands were announced for the 2015 roster by UMC - promoters for the Original and World's Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal: U.S. thrashers Whiplash, Brazilian groove masters Soulfly and U.S. legendary traditional metal act Riot, now known as Riot V.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off next Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Whiplash, Soulfly and Riot V join the previously announced bands below, with 6 bands still left to be announced:

A six pack of announcements were handed down by UMC - promoters for the Original and World's Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal: Canadian metal legends Anvil, Norway's The Hate Colony, Irish thrashers Gama Bomb, Swiss thrashers Suborned, Australia's Claim The Throne and Florida death metal act Monstrosity.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off next Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Anvil, The Hate Colony, Gama Bomb, Suborned, Claim the Throne and Monstrosity join the previously announced bands below, with 9 bands still left to be announced:

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off next Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Thy Antichrist, Enthroned and Trouble join the previously announced bands below, with 15 bands still left to be announced:

UMC - the promoters for the World's Original and Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal - announced four "newer or lesser known acts" (which over the years has heralded the fan created "Cripper Award" for best new band discovery): Jungle Rot from Wisconsin, Abandon Hope from Germany, Divided Multitude from Norway and, as a special treat, one of the most legendary South American Death Metal Bands - Masacre from Colombia.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Jungle Rot, Abandon Hope, Divided Multitude and Masacre join the previously announced bands below, with 18 bands still to be announced:

Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton just announced a new and very special kind of festival: the Sabaton Open Air / Rockstad:Falun festival in the band's hometown Falun, the Sabaton Cruise on the Baltic Sea, and now there is also Sabaton Open Air / Noch ein Bier Fest in Germany.

For a long time Sabaton has had the plans for doing a special and totally unique event in Germany and that will become reality now. In July the group will organize the new Sabaton Open Air - a headline concert where people will surely get a unique show.

For this concert Sabaton has chosen the stunning Amphitheatre in Gelsenkirchen (famous from Rock Hard Festival) and as support on this show will be Powerwolf and Korpiklaani as well as former band mates in Civil War.

Bassist Pär Sundström comments: “In 2008 we organized ‘One more beer party’ in Essen in Germany as a release party for ‘Art of War.’ Since then the idea has existed of doing something similar. Now, seven years later, all pieces have fallen into position and we are ready. There will be a lot of ‘Noch ein Bier’ that night!” More...

UMC - the promoters for the World's Original and Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal - announced two more bands for the 2015 roster, Germany's Refuge - the reunion of the classic Rage lineup from from 1988-1993 - and Israel's Melechesh. Refuge's first official performance will now be on the world's largest floating festival, while Melechesh is on the brink of releasing its sixth album "Enki" on February 27th, songs of which will debut on the cruise.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Refuge and Melechesh join previously announced bands below, with 22 bands still to be announced:

UMC - the promoters for the World's Original and Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal - announced two additions to the 2015 roster, Norweigian black metal act 1349, supporting the latest album "Massive Cauldron of Chaos" and countrymates and folk metal heroes Trollfest, in support of some chaos of its own "Kaptein Kaos."

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

1349 and Trollfest join previously announced bands below, with 24 bands still to be announced:

UMC - the promoters for the World's Original and Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal - announced two additions to the 2015 roster, Denmark's Pretty Maids and Germany's Destruction. For Pretty Maids, the band will play the entire 1987 classic "Future World" as one of the two sets on board.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Pretty Maids and Destruction join previously announced bands below, with 26 bands still to be announced:

Feeling the winter chill creeping in? Bloodstock to the rescue then, with three more bands announced to get you hot under the collar.

Norwegian extremists Enslaved are added to Bloodstock’s Main Stage next summer. With a new album due in March 2015 via Nuclear Blast, expect to bang your head to some brand new tunes. Guitarist Ivar Bjørnson states:

“We’ve been to Bloodstock once before in 2009, and not only did we understand then why it has become the most important UK Metal festival – but it has grown to mammoth-proportions since. In sum; what an absolute pleasure and honour to be invited back. We like to think that we too have developed somewhat; having a few new, pretty awesome albums and world tours under our (over-stretched) belts. We can’t wait to come and show the Bloodstock crowd what we’ve been up to. To quote one of our spiritual beacons; General Melchett: 'If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.'"

Hailing from the frozen wilds of Finland, folk metal six-piece Korpiklaani is set to join the fray in a UK exclusive appearance. Guitarist Country Cane tells us; "After having great fun and sold out shows ?with our good friends in Sabaton and TÝR, we are excited to be back in the UK to play Bloodstock in 2015. We plan to return and get the crowds singing and dancing Korpiklaani style on our next rock n roll adventure.” More...

After a near two month break from announcing acts, UMC - the promoters for the World's Original and Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal - announced that the legends and originators of "black metal" Venom are the latest band been added to the 2015 roster. The band will play an exclusive live world premiere of the forthcoming new album "From the Very Depths" in its entirety as one of the two performances.

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Venom joins previously announced bands below, with 28 bands still to be announced:

Finland's Wintersun has been confirmed as one of the main headliners of the upcoming Paganfest tour 2015. Wintersun will team up with Finnish comrades Turisas and Dutch folksters Heidefolk. Support acts will be Obscurity and Frosttide.

Furthermore, some of the dates will be Paganfest extended shows led by folk metal superstars Korpiklaani. They are joined by Hannover’s finest Grailknights and Germany's Finsterforst to complete the Paganfest 2015 billing.

UMC - promoters for the World's Original and Largest Cruise Festival, 70,000 Tons of Metal - announced that Danish thrash legends Artillery have been added to the 2015 roster. The band is about to embark on a North American Tour this November with U.K.'s Onslaught in support of the "Legions" (2013).

70,000 Tons of Metal casts off on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with a stop at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, returning on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 aboard a new ship, Liberty of the Seas (via Royal Caribbean), which will accommodate four stages. The All-Star Jam band will be back this coming January, which features members from the various acts aboard performing cover tunes live. There will also be two hot tubs on the pool deck stage.

All the information on the festival, including how to book your dream metal vacation can be found at 70000tons.com.

Artillery joins previously announced bands below, with 29 bands still to be announced: